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Same Thing Twice (Ann Xiety single)
Same Thing Twice is a song by outsider artist Matthew Little under his stage name Ann Xiety. It is the first single released in promotion for his upcoming album Cult Music.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bJs7fg8nhs Recording Little began recording the song just after moving in with his boyfriend in the apartment building he had grown up in. With this newfound freedom of not having to worry about disturbing his former roommates with his music, Little began almost immediately jamming and trying to come up with new material for his follow-up album after his April 2017 release ''Dry Hit''. In May, just days after settling in his new home, Little recorded a few random solo jam sessions in what would become his office where he would write and occasionally make and edit music. He experimented with various settings on his amp, trying out a fuller gain sound that he had been wanting to fool around with with his previous releases but never actually could. Little has stated that he has a habit of sometimes recording things and forgetting about them. In July, while taking a break from editing his then-upcoming Plot Holes mixtape Smoking wit Sylvia Plath, he went through the audio files on his phone and rediscovered the jam that would be the instrumental for "Same Thing Twice". He was astonished that he'd let something with that sound nearly escape him, so he immediately downloaded the track and began to work on it as an official track for his new album, and it would eventually become the opening track. The lyrics were written after the guitar-portion of the track was completely edited. Little's initial inspiration for them came from the band My Bloody Valentine, in how their lyrics "could mean nothing and something at the same time". The vocals were recorded in just one night using both his phone and his laptop, and were heavily layered and altered. Song structure "Same Thing Twice" includes Little's signature static sound due to having to record the guitar with his phone and having it be so close to the amp. The song opens with an odd-sounding click, which is Little pressing record on his laptop so he could record vocals using its microphone while at the same time recording with his phone, an iPhone 4. Then a bang is heard from Little placing his guitar down on the floor, which is how he usually plays it as it's easier for him as he doesn't know how to formally grasp it and make actual notes. Following more static and amp feedback, a strong strumming begins as Little plucks each string at the same time eight times for each bar. Backing vocals occur, which is Little going "oooh" and "aaah" over the rhythm. At the same time, a fidget spinner is heard spinning in the distance that adds a strange ambiance. The first verse begins and over Little's deadpan vocal delivery a hard drumming comes over made with "pots and pans". Little's cousin likened the drumming to industrial music, to which Little agreed after saying he was displeased with how it came out. The lyrics are somewhat nonsensical; he begins with mentioning how when he's upset he doesn't get violent and how he gets quiet "and bathes in violets". He then mentions how he isn't a flower, but knows sunlight "burns after a while". The lyrics then downplay how Little feels about himself: "Singing in silence/Brings me no alliance/And I defy nothing/Nothing at all". He then tells the listener "God, I'm so unusual/So typical/I'm the same thing twice". Two drum bangs are heard through a hazy filter, and then the song repeats the first verse exactly as it is, except now an additional vocal is added and gradually rises in volume along with the backing vocals that started the song. No words are changed and nothing in the instrumental is altered; this is to convey that the same thing the listener just heard is happening again, and that Little doesn't have much of an idea about how to properly structure a song. Little also views the lyric as a sort of commentary about how in the rock scene the popular songs and bands are doing the same thing with little to no change up. After the second verse finishes, the whole "God, I'm so unusual-" part repeats, this time without the drums, and the instrumental fades into a stretched mess that merges with the fidget spinner sound, and the song closes with the amp's feedback and a couple of quick strokes on the guitar that don't amount to anything. To date, "Same Thing Twice" is Little's heaviest song, and the closest to reach the grunge, noise rock level he had once aspired to create back when he first began dabbling in music. References